Been following LTT for a while now, figured I should finally make an account in order to get involved with the community. As a bit of background, I'm a student from the UK with a passion for modding and watercooling in particular. Some of you may know me from reddit, where I'm an active member of /r/buildapc and a moderator at /r/watercooling, I'm also found on Bit-Tech under the same name. I haven't actually been modding for that long, I probably started seriously not more than a couple years back. Since then I've caught the bug and can't wait to launch into new projects the moment one is finished!
So to kick things off I thought I would share with you my current work in progress rig:
The idea behind "Loramentum" was to make a rig that could be wall mounted but at the same time watercooled. The challenge comes from how I also wanted the rig to be portable so that it could be taken to LAN events and to/fro home and university. Naturally a simple mini-ITX rig in say an EVGA Hadron could have sufficed here, but I wanted to try something new and a bit more novel, at the expense of being a bit more portable.
The main construction itself is formed from a single piece of machined acrylic, which will not only provide the structure to the components, but also feature water channels for the coolant. Protection during transport will be provided by a flight case that I'll also be building.
Contents:
Update 1: Introduction and Renders Update 2: Laser Cut Frame Lid Update 3: Watercooling Care Package from EK Update 4: O-rings, Wires and Braid Update 5: GPU Blocks and Fractures Update 6: Trial by Water Update 7: Fans, Plugs and Dye Update 8: Extenders, Extensions and Sharpies Update 9: Corsair Dominator Platinum - Gold Edition Update 10: Front panel cut Update 11: GPU Bracket Started Update 12: GPU Bracket Finished Update 13: Flight Case Parts Update 14: PSU Bracket and Pump Jacket Update 15: Part assembly! Update 16: Stand and Coolant Renders Update 17: Flight Case Part 1 Update 18: Flight Case Part 2 Update 19: 24 Pin Sleeved... Again Update 20: Flight Case Interior Work Update 21: 8 Pin CPU Cable made and sleeved Update 22: GPU Sleeved up and Cable Management Update 23: PSU Fan and SSD Painting Update 24: New Mechanical Keyboard and Stand Progress Update 25: Stand Finished Update 26: Smashed... Better start over Update 27: New Block Design and 3D Model sharing! Update 28: The Parts Still Work! Update 29: New Block and Giveaway Update 30: O-rings back in Update 31: Block filled and tested Update 32: Hardware Installed Update 33: Tubing Added Update 34: Coolant Added Update 35: Finished! Final Pics Here! Update 36: Better Final Pics Here! Ignore the previous ones Update 37: Battlestation Upgrade!
First up I'd like to thank EK Waterblocks who will be providing much of the watercooling equipment used in this build, I'd also like to thank Intel for sending me an i7 4770k to use in this build!
So here's a hardware lowdown:
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770k Motherboard: Asus Z87I-Pro RAM: 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866MHz GPU: Asus AMD R9 290 PSU: Corsair RM650 Storage: Samsun Evo in some undecided size (likely 512GB)
Cooling:
CPU Block: EK Supremacy Clean Gold GPU Block: EK-FC R9-290X Acetal Radiator: XSPC EX360 Crossflow Pump: Laing D5 Vario with EK Clean Pump Top Fittings: EK HD Adapters Tubing: EK rigid acrylic tubing 10/12mm Fans: Undecided but I'm likely to go for Noiseblocker eloops as they look simply fantastic
Concept Renders:
These were made using a combination of Autodesk Inventor and Blender, with the renders themselves being done in Cycles within Blender. I find planning builds like this in 3D can be a great idea as it allows you to play with things like colour schemes and alternate parts very easily.
For the case I've decided to go for the carbon vinyl look. Not only is it easier to work with, but most of the people I asked said they preferred it, which certainly works for me. I'm planning on having the RAM heatspreaders and GPU Plate/IO shield gold plated so that they match the theme. You'll notice from the renders that the reservoir is actually built into the structure itself, it's definitely one of the parts I'm most looking forward to finishing.
And now for some actual components!
I know you've all seen it before, but damn I love the look of these sticks. Very different in person to how they appear in the promotional art though, the bars have much more texture to them, which is no bad thing.
Dat box...
Sockets make for some cool macro shots.
And just for a laugh, this is where I'm keeping the components for now... Yeah I know, I don't think I've ever seen an emptier Phantom before.
And the award for the loudest stock component ever goes to the 290. I knew the stock cooler was pretty loud, but I was truly taken aback just by how much, it's insane.
Here's the machined part after a few goes with some coarser grit sandpaper. I'll be slowly working my way up the grades, just need to order in some more of the high grit stuff first.
Rough fitting session with the rad, pump and an old GTX 590. That card is monstrously sized, much larger than the 290 (or at least it feels it), thankfully the holes line up with the ports etc. on the 290.
Hope you all enjoy the project! I'm looking forward to being able to post more updates as well as getting involved with the awesome community here.
For the past few years the number of apps compatible with older iOS versions shrunk tremendously. However, when Apple released iOS 7, they added a long awaited feature to the app store. No longer do we who have been stuck with the original iPhone and iPhone 3G have to Jailbreak our phones and scour the internet for older versions of .ipa files. Using sketchy third party programs to install them.
Now, when we the unfortunate few go into the App Store to download an app, we are presented with this badge
Which then allows us to download a working, albeit slow version of the app.